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| This window box display was a part of the “Favorites” choice on the menu at Qsine on the Celebrity Infinity in 2017. |
Today’s photos are from our post on this date in 2017 while sailing on the Celebrity Infinity along the coast of South America and dining in the fantastic specialty restaurant, Qsine. For more photos not shown here today, please click here.
Sharing these food photos for the second time, under our current situation, is certainly going to be a mouth-watering experience. To think, in less than a month, we’ll be preparing and dining our meals, one of the many highlights of getting out of here.
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| Tom dined on one of these “Lava Crab” dishes I avoided due to the flour content. He described it as outstanding. |
As we are reminded of the exceptional dinner we had on that cruise in 2017, and how much fun specialty restaurants are on cruises, we wonder when we’ll ever be able to cruise again. The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine may be influential in re-starting cruises in some countries, but many developing countries won’t offer such a luxury.
If any of the cruise lines with whom we have five booked cruises into 2022 requires evidence of a vaccine, we may be out of luck. Africa will be one of the last continents to have access to the vaccine. We’ll see how that rolls out in time. If we were to fly to another continent at some point to receive the vaccine, we’d have to stay three weeks for the second dose.
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| Tom held his menu tablet while deciding what to order at the Qsine specialty restaurant while at sea on Celebrity Infinity. Nine Celebrity ships were offering this exceptional dining experience. |
Perhaps in time, they’ll develop a single-dose vaccine that will make it easier for those in similar situations to ours. If we decide to continue on our world travels for considerably longer, we’ll have no choice but to return to the US to receive the vaccine. Maybe we can do so next time we visit family, which we’ll do once the virus settles down in the US.
This report, updated daily, the USA has 23% of the world’s cases and 19% deaths. Considering that statistics are being recorded in 220 countries and territories, this is an outrageous number. As we’ve mentioned many times in past posts, returning to the US at any time shortly is entirely out of the question.
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| From the “Sushi ” choice were these “lollipops.” Although we didn’t order this option, we loved this gorgeous presentation. |
As for today’s photos, our topic returns to food. Yesterday, while I was working on the errors in past posts, of which I’m only one-third of the way through the over 3000 posts, I encountered comments I’d made about a reader commenting that they were sick and tired of my food comments and recipes. Hum, isn’t traveling in part about dining in one way or another?
When most of us travel, one of the first things on the agenda is checking out the local cuisine, booking reservations from highly rated TripAdvisor reviews, visiting local food trucks, cafes, and diners, and the possibility of the safety of eating street food? While dining out during a holiday/vacation, how many of us have entered a grocery store to check out the cultural differences in food, pricing, and at times, to purchase snacks, liquor, or treats?
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| Many items from the “Soup & Souffle” menu were served “tapas” style, small servings such as these two souffle chefs Chantal prepared for me. |
That’s a big part of the enjoyment of traveling. And even with my limited options due to my way of eating, it’s still quite enjoyable to dine out, purchase groceries, and prepare our meals while living in holiday homes. Oh, well, that was only one reader, and I’m sure by now, they no longer read our posts at all, especially after our boring content over the past nine months.
If they thought “food” was boring, how about our frequent comments, whining, and observations about living under these most peculiar circumstances? As our long-term and new readers know, we strive to “tell it like it is” and not pander to those who may prefer a more “fluffy version” of our lives.
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| The “Taco Royale” presentation could easily have been a full meal for me with its make-your-own guacamole and beef taco salad. |
Sure, this meal we’re sharing today in photos looks stupendous, and we’d love to be able to savor such a meal now. But we can’t. Instead, we focus on the fact that soon enough, we’ll be preparing big juicy rare/medium-rare steaks on the braai with a cocktail or glass of wine in hand, sweating up a storm on the veranda, batting off the flies and mozzies, and smiling from ear to ear. Hopefully, in a little over 25 days, when we depart India for South Africa.
Happy day!
Photo from one year ago today, December 18, 2019:
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From this site: “The famous fountain in Fountain Hills, Arizona: Built-in 1970 by Robert McCulloch, the fountain is one of the largest fountains in the world! The fountain sprays water for 15 minutes every hour at the top of the hour. The fountain uses 7,000 gallons per minute, and at its full height, it can reach 560 feet in the air. The plume rises from a concrete water-lily sculpture in the center of a man-made lake. At its full height of 560 feet, the fountain in the center of Fountain Hills is higher than the Washington Monument. It is 10 feet taller than Notre Dame Cathedral, 110 feet higher than the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, and three times as high as Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park. The white plume of the world-famous fountain is visible far beyond Fountain Hills. It can be seen from as far away as the Superstition Mountains, Carefree, and even from aircraft. The fountain is the focal point for community celebrations and the pride of its residents. If you happen to visit during the St. Patrick’s Day celebration, you’ll see the fountain transform to emerald green. The Fountain is extended to its full height on special occasions. For everyday viewing, the Fountain reaches a height of 330 feet! The World Famous Fountain runs every hour on the hour for 15 minutes from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. every day of the week! This fountain is a celebration of life and water where it is most appreciated – in the middle of the desert.” For more from the year-ago post, please click here.
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